Product Description

The Independent Fresh Food retailer is under constant threat from there competitors – the large grocer and fast food outlets. While Fresh Food is the most profitable of all food categories it is also the most competitive. 

The challenge was to create a point of difference for these retailers while increasing their customer loyalty and sales but considering the environment we had to deliver a solution that was;

• Attract consumer attention

• consumer friendly while being easy to use

• be simple for the local retailer/manager (IT illiterate and time poor) to manage and update

• have generic content and application while presenting as store specific

• Track consumer thoughts

• Have the ability to promote store specific promotions

• Content to be updated on a regular basis (at least monthly) 

On top of all of these challenges the solution had to operate reliably (and be networked connected) in a consumer food environment. 

We have achieved all of this with our in store “recipe printer” The solution works on a number of levels – consumer, retailer and product company. It should be noted that there are generally two primary thoughts on the consumers mind when shopping in a Fresh Food environment – What should I have for dinner tonight/the weekend? and How do I cook/prepare/store the product?. These product and benefits are described as follows:

Consumer:

• An attraction screen attracts attentions and encourages the consumer to “touch the screen”. This content is updated monthly and represents current campaigns – Lamb for Australia Day etc.

• In between each of these 10sec segments the consumer is presented with current specials or featured products. This is store updated via simple touch screen admin function 

• When the screen is touched the consumer is presented with a selection of six categories. These categories could be roasts, fruit in season. Cooking tips, stir fry’s etc.

• When a category is selected the consumer is presented with a selection from that category and when selected a branded recipe is immediately printed. This includes shopping list, nutritional information, possible specials offered (wine) and instructions and tips on preparing the meal.

• Other application available to the consumer include recipe search, wine matching, competition entry forms and many others

Retailer

• This solution has been proven to influence sales with results reported on 25% and 5 times the monthly service fee

• It creates a distinct point of difference and engenders loyalty

• This solution if store specific and easy to manage by the retailer

• All interactions are tracked and reported on via our portal so the retailer can now accurately understand what the consumer is thinking and buying at what day of the week or what time of day

Product Company

• Companies are able to promote their products at the ultimate consumer point of decision on a manner that has a tangible measurement.

Innovation

The yeahware Fresh Food solution has been installed in all Australian states, New Zealand and Singapore. We are currently implementing up to 15 new sites per month and this is expected to increase when the new online backend is released in March 07. This backend will allow complimentary independent retailers (butcher, fresh produce, liquor, baker, etc) to combine and jointly offer local communities of retailers with digital marketing capabilities that supersede any existing capability of the large grocers. While this is unique the base product implemented at store level has been developed so that the retailer does not have any management overhead and is delivered in a cost effective manner. The cost to the retailer is kept reasonable by utilising scale i.e. the number of retailers and having a base application and content that is presented to the consumer as a local store branded solution.

There are 4 ways in which this product is innovative and unique:

• Business model. The solution is installed on a monthly subscription basis at a cost that is very easy for the retailer to cover by increased sales. The base coverage of sales profitability expected is 4-5 times the monthly service fee. There are no up front costs to the retailer. The software has been designed to allow for a single application and content to be delivered to all retailers and presents to the consumer as if it were store specific. This includes branding, specials, meal types (different by region and suburb) and specials.

• Benefit to the consumer. The time poor consumer has the most challenging questions answered in a simple to use solution. What do I eat or how do I cook is easily answered 

• Understanding the consumer. By tracking and analysing all interaction the retailer can accurately see what the consumer wants and when.

• In store media must work in a harsh stand alone environment. Our hardware, software and network has proven itself to be reliable and cost effective to run.

The Solution – Smart and Innovative Software

The solution described above is the result of almost ten man-years of research and development into consumer behaviour in retail. This Knowledge has culminated in the product we deliver today. In order to deliver a sound business solution there are a number of innovative challenges that have been overcome. These include

• Dynamic live content management – rather than being driven by playlists and schedulers, the Yeahpoint content is set as a broad strategy with each individual store able to customise ~50% of the content to suit their demographic, pricing and customer requirements. The output is a content platform that adapts to such stores as David Jones while being perfectly at home in Bundaberg.

• Direct high speed thermal printing – one of the first things consumers notice is the rapid speed with which the unit delivers the printed output. Using a dynamic database driven custom application, the Yeahpoint solution builds and prints directly on the fly by passing OS infrastructure such as spoolers and drivers ... delivering results a speed often surprising consumers in store.

• Innovative User Interface – one of the primary challenges in delivering the yeahpoint solution was delivering a sophisticated interactive application being easy and inviting for consumers, while providing a secure and simple administrative interface. Unique interface features developed in conjunction with clients include;

• In store content and promotion can be modified securely in store as well as from head office

• Promotions simplified by using ‘templates’ allows clients to simply fill in price and measure to deliver dynamic signage across multiple in store screens (both interactive and large plasma displays) such as “Lean Beef Mince $8.99kg, 2kg for $12”

• In order to access the admin function, retailers simply touch three words in a sequence that would never be selected by a consumer followed by a unique pin number. The yeahware admin interface is then based on a similar concept to the content with a touch screen selector (reports, change specials, change recipes, change volume, etc) and when selected all changes are made via drop down lists of scrolling price boxes

• Customised ‘auto build and repair’ management solution (JAVA based). By simply downloading a ZIP file the solution is able to re-configure applications, update databases, refresh content, interact with the printer EEPROM, and restart the machine. All faults except hardware have been successfully managed remotely with no remote access.

• Build and ship deployment cycle – as detailed in Telstra case study, once physically assembled a unit can be built and shipped to any site in Australia and simply plugged in. Devices have mobile phone network broadband adaptors attached which automatically connect and configure once plugged in. Yeahpoint have fully internet managed interactive units in sites remote sites such as Kerang, Roma and Margaret River where no technician has ever visited the site

Barriers to Entry

Unique software that works will always be copied and mimicked, however yeahpoint understand and recognize that we are an execution based and not an IP based business. In order to protect the business and minimize copy threats, yeahpoint has the following advantages:

• First mover advantage

• Once we have implemented a vertical (Fresh Food, Automotive, etc) we tend to secure the various industry bodies and suppliers (e.g. MLA, Fosters, etc)

• A unique business model has been created which has developed a very high entry cost into this market

• Complex software is harder to copy. We continue to develop the solution and add new functionality

• We have very close relationships with technology companies (Microsoft, Symbol, Telstra) who not only endorse and promote our product but work with us to develop smarter new retail experiences – retail of the future

• Access to content. We have long terms access to relevant content. This in itself is a significant barrier to entry

Knowledge is power

Retailers have always been of the quest for the Holy Grail – in retail the Holy Grail in Consumer Information/Intelligence. Until now retailers would analyse sales data, conduct surveys and go with gut instinct. With the advent of yeahware we now add real consumer intelligence to this buy understanding the thought process and actions of the consumer at the point of product. With the numerous types of interactive peripherals available (touch screen, bar code scanner, motion sensors, web back end, biometric scanners, etc) yeahware captures, tracks and analyses this information delivering the purist form of consumer intelligence ever made available. Some examples of this data at work include:

• In butchery we know what cuts of meat are of interest and being sold, in what demographic area, at what time of month and at what time of day. For the industry access to this trend information is extremely useful for pricing, producing and understanding above the line marketing

• By adding motion sensors to the units we are able to track store foot fall and when analysed with sales and yeahware interactive data we can now accurately determine store zone yield

• Analysis of consumer thoughts and interactive patterns show buying trends where we can look at changing merchandising patterns increasing turn over and decreasing stock. (e.g. in a recent store analysis we observed that consumers had a preference for steak and cut meats in the morning and easy meals (roasts) from 3pm onwards. Based on this info simple merchandising decreased wastage, increased turn over and profit while reducing store production time)

• Consumer Intelligence is ultimately the best way to prove (or disprove) other marketing campaigns. Yeahpoint, in conjunction with Microsoft, have developed a unique retail consumer intelligence to monitor and track such trends 

• The imagination is really the limit when we have real data available. The above mentioned points are a few real examples of the benefit of really understanding your customer.

Performance

The solution has proven itself time and time again. This is evidenced by customer testimonial, sales results, growth in the network (locally and internationally) and yeahpoint customers extending the initial 12 month contracts beyond indefinitely. We currently have in excess of 95% customer retention with some going back two and half years which is when version 1 of the product was releases.

Customer testimonials

“I sold my months supply of Lamb Shanks in a week after promoting them on the unit”

Craig Cook – Prime Quality Meats, NSW

“This unit is worth $1500 - $1800 per week in additional sales”

Rob Robertson, Fleurieu Fresh, SA

“One of the best investments in the business we’ve ever made”

Steve McCranor, Turramurra Plaza Meats, NSW

“We’ve needed something like this for a long time. Our sales are up and I’m now thinking of putting in more screens” 

Sam Mangano, Zone Fresh, QLD 

Additional proof is the consistent usage of the unit in store. Currently we are printing in excess of 70,000 recipes on demand every month by consumers who are in a buying state of mind.

Please see attached press articles from various publications.

Sales Results

While actual sales results are often difficult to measure in store due to the loyalty factor, i.e. what is the impact of the unit on customer loyalty and recommendation. In recent study in the liquor industry where we measured sales of a mature beer brand, we looked at all factors (stores with the solution, without the solution, with and without price drop promotions, with and without catalogue support) the yeahpoint solution achieved the following results:

Beer Brand 1 – Slabs (24 pack)

Beer Brand 1 – Blocks (30 pack)

Note: Additional info available on request

Potential

The emergence of digital media is evident everywhere we look (YouTube, Google, eBay, etc) and has become an accepted media form generating millions in advertising revenue. Add to this the fact that consumers are becoming more and more time poor while becoming more sophisticated shoppers and we have the perfect position to place digital media to assist and influence these consumers – the point of product. It should be noted that there are distinct differences between yeahware and in store TV, these differences include:

• A sound and proven business model

• Interactivity

• Always relevant content i.e. for the consumer at any time

• Position of media

• Cost for retailer – 1 application is presented as store unique

• Consumer Intelligence – track and analyse consumer thoughts and action

• Link to complimentary local stores for unique local store marketing program

Based on these criteria the potential and demand for this application is unlimited as well as the same solution with different content (plug and play) has already been utilised and tested in other verticals including Automotive (lubricants, car care and audio), Pet care and Plant nutrition to name a few.

Yeahpoint, with the fantastic assistance of Austrade, has successfully completed the first installation of 17 units across Singapore and New Zealand and is finalising the first installations in Malaysia. Yeahpoint is also in discussions with Austrade and various retailers to expand these networks as well starting installations in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan and USA. These installations are all in the Fresh Food market. On the back of these installations the next logical step is to take the other verticals proven in Australia into these territories.

Other information the judges should know

Now that yeahpoint has a good installed base of “printers” on long term installations across a number of Fresh Food retailers we are finalising the Fresh Food Network installation. This is essentially a web based back end that allows consumers to get and share information on Fresh food (recipes, cooking tips, forums, storage info, complimentary foods, meal planners, competitions, etc) and be able to link to their local stores. This portal has the ability to take specials and features from individual stores and electronically market to individual and assist in driving higher foot fall into stores. This element of the Fresh Food network is being beta tested currently and will be launched in March.

Yeahpoint is currently developing similar software for a number of other verticals including Cosmetics, Hair Colourant hardware and Home entertainment.

The yeahpoint website is www.yeahpoint.com.

Please find attached a number of press articles. (Attached as pdf's which will open in a new window)

Butchers Voice, Courier Mail, Manly Daily, Port Macquarie, Retail Tech, Gloucester Advocate, Case Study, Solo flat panel signage, Solo - Daily Telegraph, Solo - Redland Bay Times, Solo - SunCoast Daily